


Sunshine

by prettyboydotexe



Series: Sun Angels [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, Healing, M/M, Post-Canon, Romance, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 17:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5425778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettyboydotexe/pseuds/prettyboydotexe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It took a lot of fussing on Will’s part, and even some of Jason giving Nico the Disappointed Look, but Nico eventually conceded to staying at camp for three days after the final battle and the funeral rites of fallen campers to ‘recover’ under the son of Apollo’s care. Not that Nico was really in any state to argue his health, what with the messy stitching scattered like broken constellations up his arms and his staggering gait. Really, Will hadn’t needed to be so polite about it, either. He easily could’ve asked Jason to fireman's carry Nico to the infirmary and that would’ve been that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunshine

It took a lot of fussing on Will’s part, and even some of Jason giving Nico the Disappointed Look, but Nico eventually conceded to staying at camp for three days after the final battle and the funeral rites of fallen campers to ‘recover’ under the son of Apollo’s care. Not that Nico was really in any state to argue his health, what with the messy stitching scattered like broken constellations up his arms and his staggering gait. Really, Will hadn’t needed to be so polite about it, either. He easily could’ve asked Jason to fireman's carry Nico to the infirmary and that would’ve been that.

That’s not to say Nico didn’t complain the whole time, though. Will had to stop him from leaving and changing his mind three times the first day. At some point he even had a rotating watch of off-duty medics in Nico’s makeshift room while he checked on how the other injured campers were fairing.

As it happens, on top of his more obvious injuries (fortunately, Reyna’s patchwork was clean and efficient, if not pretty, so infection had been prevented), Will had diagnosed Nico with ‘Shadow Sickness’. According to Chiron, who had to enlighten the Apollo cabin on the aspects of the rare ailment, Shadow Sickness was an illness developed by children of Hades when they used their powers too frequently, or for extended periods of time.

“The only known treatment would be natural sunlight,” Chiron had explained to the circle of healers plus Nico, and Jason for some reason. Reyna would have been present, had she not been overseeing the Roman campers preparing to leave. “It’s been many years since we’ve had a child of Hades, and I will admit last time we could have treated them with more… well, we could have handled it better, frankly. William, I’m putting Mr. di Angelo’s main care into your hands. I expect you to take note.”

“Great…” Nico had muttered quietly to Jason, forgetting himself for a moment. “I’m a science experiment.”

“Hey, at least this way, they’ll be able to help future siblings of yours,” Jason had said, though without the usual vigor Nico had learned to know him for. Leo’s death had hit him hard. Nio still had to tell him about what he’d felt. Jason patted his shoulder, and Nico tried to hide a instinctual wince, but failed. The blonde next to him frowned. “I’m not gonna hurt you, you know…”

Nico could only nod tersely, thankful for when Will butted in between them to explain treatment options for Nico to consider.

“We don’t have any room in the infirmary, since we’ve got a lot of critical condition campers, but we’ve got a few tents set up in the backyard,” Will explained in what Nico had dubbed his Doctor Voice. “We’ll just stick you in one of those and make some alterations to let in some sunlight. Think Aphrodite cabin could help with that…”

“Hell if I know,” Nico huffed quietly, Will and Jason gave him similar Looks. Nico ducked his head into his shoulders and shoved his hands in his pockets.

The first day was the worst.

“Nico, you _have_ to eat something,” Will said for the millionth time, Looking at the untouched plate of fruit on Nico’s lap.

“I did.”

“One apple slice hardly counts.”

“You said eat something, and I did. It’s not my fault you weren’t specific,” Nico glared back at the blonde, but he didn’t seem as affected by it as Nico would’ve liked.

“Eat. The fruit.”

“No,” the two sat like that for seemingly forever, staring back at each other unblinkingly. Finally, Will sighed, rubbing his temples with his index fingers.

“Why not, Nico?” he said after a moment, voice sounding resigned. Nico instantly felt bad, head sinking between his shoulders.

“I can’t…” Nico replied, almost too quietly to be heard, but apparently he was, because Will sighed again. He tensed as the mattress dipped, but Will kept a careful distance between them. He’d already talked to Nico about slowly building himself up to human contact, because he wouldn’t be able to avoid it forever. He stared at his hands, even when Will asked him to look at him. When he finally did, he made sure to glare defiantly.

“It’s okay if you can’t, Nico, you coulda said that,” he offered what he probably thought was an encouraging smile, Nico only grimaced in response. “Just do the best you can, alright?” Nico nodded, and Will patted his shoulder briefly before exiting the tent.

After that, things got marginally better. Jason, Will, and occasionally Hazel or Reyna would visit him periodically through the day, usually bringing food or just offering company. They discovered quickly Hazel and Reyna caused nearly no negative reaction when they touched Nico, Will suggested Hazel was because of the familial ties, Reyna because of the bond they’d developed while transporting the statue of Athena. Coach Hedge visited once, to introduce Nico to his newborn son, who Will wouldn’t stop gushing over (Nico pretended not to see Reyna making faces at the baby when she thought no one was looking, just to make him smile and laugh). 

The sunlight was the worst part, in Nico’s opinion. It was even worse than all the touching. When he was in the light for more than a few minutes, his skin would start to itch and more than a few times Will had to put his hands in a pair of Mr. D’s oven mits just to keep him from ripping his stitches or causing new lacerations. Will had wrote it down in the journal he kept in Nico’s tent, like he did all of Nico’s symptoms and treatments, and had even let Nico read it when he was done without question. Nico could just barely make out Will’s aggressive chicken scratch, and his dyslexia wasn’t even as bad as other demigods.

When Will asked why that was, Nico had responded with “I grew up in the forties, Will, dyslexia didn’t exist then. It was either learn or don’t. But even to me your handwriting is _awful_.”

By the third day, Jason and Will had ganged up on him and convinced him to try to eat in the dining pavilion. He resolutely ignored all the stares and whispers that seemed to erupt from all directions as he passed on his way to Zeus table (Chrion’s separation rules could suck it, according to Will). By the time he had sat down, his fists were clenched so hard his nails had dug into his palms, and he’d nearly shredded his lips.

“This was a bad idea…”

“Nah, they’re just surprised to see you, is all. They think you’re a hero.”

“Is that it?” Nico huffed a dry laugh, staring down at the table. He could hear the murmurs, the hushed questions and even quieter replies, until suddenly the bench shook and Nico’s personal space was invaded by a very excited son of Poseidon.

“Nico! Man, I didn’t expect to see you out here!” Percy exclaimed, carefully keeping his hands to himself. Nico internally shrunk down, did _everyone_ know something was wrong with him? And anyway, why was Percy being so nice? Didn’t he hate Nico?

“Not so loud, seaweed brain, you’re going to overwhelm him!” Annabeth chastised, seating herself much more gently than Percy had next to Jason. “It’s good to see you up and around, Nico, we were all pretty worried. We would’ve visited but… well those tents are small, and Percy is… Percy.”

“Thanks…” Nico replied tersely, looking for any escape route. It was bad enough he was out here, Jason made it somewhat tolerable, he was familiar, almost safe now, but Percy and Annabeth were unknown factors. That, and Annabeth was right. Percy was… Percy.

Just when Nico was about to make some admittedly lame excuse about being tired and going back to his tent, his solace came in the form of a certain blonde healer dropping down on Nico’s unoccupied side.

“You’re not disturbing my patient, are you, Jackson?” Will asked in his Doctor Voice, and Nico had never been happier to see his annoying caretaker. Percy made a sound like he’d been shot, slapping a hand over his heart.

“I would never! Right, Neeks?”

“Sure, Percy…”

“Aww, c’mon!”

“Percy, let it go.”

“Annabeth!”

“How’re you feeling?” Will asked quietly, while Jason and Annabeth quelled Percy, Nico gave him a panicked look. “Hey, no, you’re okay,” Will carefully put his hands on Nico’s shoulders, effectively grounding him for the time being. “You’re safe. I’m here, Jason’s here, no one’s going to try to hurt you. Can you make it through dinner? It’s okay if you can’t. I can bring you something later.”

“No, I can do it,” Nico shook his head resolutely. He said he’d stay for dinner; he would stay for dinner. Nico didn’t do back on his word.

“Alright,” Will nodded, not questioning his resolve. He smiled afterwards, one of those lopsided grins he got when he thought he was being funny. “Let’s go for three slices today, eh, Deathboy?”

“Stop calling me Deathboy..!”

 

The day Nico was finally released from Will’s ‘care’, Chiron informed him that due to his lack of a cabin size, he would be sharing camp activities with Zeus and Poseidon.

The first day he joined them, Percy asked if he should be training so soon after his recovery. Jason had to physically restrain Nico from braining Percy with his own shield. They didn’t have any issues after that.

The more time he spent with Jason and Percy, watching them spare and compete with a rivalry only comparable to their fathers’ (but not nearly as hostile), the more Nico realized he really _wasn’t_ in love with the son of Poseidon. Sure, he was cute, and sometimes he was funny, but otherwise he was unremarkable. His sword skills were commendable, but so were Jason’s, and Annabeth’s, and Frank’s, so they weren’t really all that special. He was powerful, but all children of the Big Three were.

Nico found himself in the infirmary pretty frequently, but not because he was injured. At first, it was because Jason and Percy’s competitions got a little out of hand sometimes, causing them to have to go in for stitches or ambrosia for bruises. Nico hadn’t really noticed how much he actually enjoyed Will’s presence until he didn’t have him hovering over him all the time, and he found himself visiting said son of Apollo whenever he wasn’t busy.

Will offered to teach him how to shoot, and Nico had burst into laughter when at the range, the instructor let it slip that Will couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.

“Most of my skills as a son of Apollo actually lie in the medical field,” Will had begrudgingly admitted, when Nico had out shot him in every station despite having very little training. Nico held in his laughter and patted his arm consolingly, still on the quieter side of socialization, but he figured that much was probably just his personality.

Most days, after the first few months, were good.

Others, were very, very bad.

Nico still woke up with horrible night terrors, like all demigods did. It wasn’t anything new. He’d wake up with a scream just rising out of his throat, the smell of smoke still stinging his nose, red just barely clouding the edge of his vision. He still saw the creatures, dark shapes just deep enough in the mist that he couldn’t make out what they were, only that they were trying to kill him. He could still see Bianca, could still hear Percy contemplating leaving him for dead despite the boy’s continued apologies.

Those days, he could hardly drag himself out of bed. He couldn’t, sometimes, and Will or Jason or Percy would come to check on him, only to find him holed up on his bunk with every light on and his sword clutched in his fist like a lifeline. Percy, who had quickly figured out his presence wasn’t necessarily helpful most of the time, would go find Jason or Will.

Will would often sit at the foot of Nico’s bed, one warm hand laid gently on top of Nico’s icy fingers curled tightly around his sword. He’d never say anything, only sit there, a familiar presence to keep him grounded when his memories got especially bad. Jason would read in the next bunk over, silently offering Nico support should he need it, while Percy would bring by food during the meal times they missed.

As time went on, the nightmares came less and less often. Nico found himself smiling more, laughing more, thinking of leaving less. He unpacked his bag, his diminutive amount of belongings tucked into one of the dressers of Cabin Thirteen, his final gift from Bianca proudly on display on his nightstand. He played Capture the Flag with the camp, usually on Annabeth’s team because she really did have genius plans. He visited Camp Jupiter every weekend to see Reyna and Hazel, alternating between zombie chauffeur and shadow travel, even though it always made Will nervous. Campers warmed up to him, learned to respect him, even. He taught a class on swordsmanship on Thursdays. They liked to tease him about his crush on a certain son of Apollo, who always happened to bring him water because their breaks were at the same time.

“So, di Angelo,” a child of Hermes, Richard, Nico remembered, began once they’d started up from their break again. Will always sat in the stands for a few minutes to watch before he had to get back to the infirmary, he claimed it was to make sure no one made themselves sick from guzzling water. “You’re bent, right?”

There was a series of giggles from Richard’s classmates, and the child of Hermes preened, seemingly glad to have gotten a reaction. Nico only raised an eyebrow at him, not nearly as perturbed as he would have been almost a year ago. “Why, are you offering?” Richard sputtered, his sword nearly falling from his hands as Nico used his shock to put him on the defensive. “Yes, I’m gay. I thought that was common knowledge by now.”

“Does Solace know that?” a Demeter girl asked, too loud for Nico’s taste, making him glance back to make sure the aforementioned had returned to the infirmary. He had. “I’m guessing no.”

“Of course he knows. We had a big heart to heart, everyone held hands, Jason cried. It was Hallmark worthy,” Nico replied, disarming someone with a flick of his wrist. The group dissolved into giggles, Nico smirked to himself. It actually wasn’t too far off from the truth, Jason _had_ teared up when Nico officially came out, and they had had a talk about feelings, the memory made him wince, but there wasn’t any hand holding. 

“Then why haven’t you asked him out?” that made him stutter, sword coming to a stop mid ark as he froze in confusion and shock. He regained his composure relatively quickly, though. 

“The same reason you can’t get a date, McAlliger,” he snapped back. “Enough talking. I want all of you doing disarming drills back and forth until time,’ he rolled his eyes at the groans he received, sheathing his sword with a flourish. “Yeah, well, you guys shoulda thought of that before you started butting into my love life.” 

“Did I hear something about a love life?” Nico was startled to see Piper standing atop the bleachers as he began to pick his supplies up. She hadn’t been there a few seconds ago. “Chiron sent me to get you, we have a meeting?”

The class cheered and Nico rolled his eyes, he had been deliberately avoiding going to a meeting. He should’ve known his presence would be missed. Will probably noticed he was gone. 

“Looks like you guys get off early, then. Go on, scram.” 

 

Of course Nico knew he liked Will. Of course Will knew Nico was gay. Nico, of course, knew Will was bisexual, but leaning towards guys a bit more. But, as Piper had pointed out months ago, those little details didn’t equal a relationship. Just because they were both into dudes, didn’t mean they were into each other, regardless if Nico had a crush on Will. 

Still, Nico could hope. 

He kept it relatively quiet once he figured it out. He told Jason, and that was it. But then Annabeth figured it out, then Hazel, who told Frank, and Reyna, who figured it out months ago, apparently. Nico knew he was in bad when _Percy_ asked him what he was going to do about it. 

It wasn’t that Nico didn’t want to do anything about it, it was that he couldn’t. Too many things could go wrong, he’d made progress, he’d made friends! He couldn’t lose that over a crush. But as it turns out, he didn’t have to. 

“Hey, Deathboy.”

“I told you to stop calling me that.”

“You wanna hang out tonight? The Stolls just lent me their Disney collection and you missed like twenty movies,” Will dropped down onto the bench Nico was currently using to cool down after a particularly intense sparring match with Jason. At least Will didn’t seem to mind the smell.

“There’s no way there’s that many.”

“Yep! They kept makin’ ‘em even after he died, so there’s a ton of ‘em. Wanna see?”

“I suppose I don’t have a choice, do I?”

“That’s the spirit!” 

They had movie nights relatively frequently, just Will, and sometimes Jason and Percy, getting Nico up to date with the pop culture he’d missed. It was pretty fun, most nights. Tonight, it was just him and Will, each bundled up in their own blanket nest because Cabin Thirteen did have a tendency to run a little cold even in the summer. Nico had pushed his bundle closer to Will’s, because of the heat the older boy seemed to constantly emit. Yep, that was the only reason. 

“That _dick_ ,” Nico gasped, morally offended, as Hans left Anna for dead. Will only cackled, shoveling popcorn into his mouth as he watched Nico’s reactions. He always ended up watching Nico more than the movies, anyway. “I hope he freezes.”

“Don’t worry, Sunshine, he’ll get his due.” 

“Sunshine?” Nico pulled his eyes from the movie, looking at Will with a quizzical expression. Will was much, much closer than he had been before, and his arms had been pulled out of his nest. Nico had the urge to reach out and lace their fingers together, but he just barely managed not to. 

“Well, you don’t like Deathboy, so…” Will shrugged, his mop of blonde hair falling into his eyes. “Sunshine. Why, do you hate it?”

“It’s… not so bad,” Nico replied, Will seemed to be getting closer. “But why Sunshine?”

“It’s a song, a lullaby. ‘You are my Sunshine’.”

“Yeah, I know it. My mom used to sing it to us when we were children. I don’t remember some of the lyrics anymore, though.”

“I’ll remind you then,” Will had a smile like the sun, he blinded Nico when he stared directly at him, but he couldn’t look away if he wanted to. He didn’t. 

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,” Will moved a lock of hair from Nico’s face, tucking it behind his ear. “You make me happy, when skies are grey. You’ll never know dear, how much I lo-” 

Nico ended up cutting him off before he could finish. Will didn’t even hesitate, pulling Nico close to him by his waist and slotting their lips together at a more comfortable position. It wasn’t like nico had much experience. It was awkward, but alright, as far as first kisses go. Nico wouldn’t exchange it for anything in the world. 

“Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any requests, find me at my writing blog! prettyboydocx.tumblr.com


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